RAK to host first Belgian Travel Summit

, September 17, 2018

Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA) has announced that the emirate will be hosting the first edition of Belgian Travel Summit (BTS) from December 4 to 9 this year.

The summit will be the first joint congress of the Belgian trade unions of travel agencies at a national Belgium level and will see the attendance of the Association of Flemish Travel Agencies (VVR) and the French speaking Union Professionnelle des Agences de Voyages (UPAV).

The announcement came following RAKTDA’s latest European roadshow which headed to the Benelux last week, visiting Luxemburg, Ghent and Rotterdam to meet industry representatives and introduce Ras Al Khaimah’s diverse and spectacular beach, desert, mountain and adventure offering.

Benelux is a growing source market for Ras Al Khaimah and combined with other key European markets including Germany, UK, Nordics, Poland and the Czech Republic accounts for a continued increase of international visitor arrivals to the Emirate.

Haitham Mattar, chief executive officer of Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority, said: “We have seen significant growth in European Markets, particularly in the first part of this year which was up 28 per cent when compared to the same period in 2017. As we look towards our goal of 1 million visitors by the end of 2018 and 3 million by 2025, it’s important that we maintain this momentum and as such we are investing in promoting our offer across the European markets. Our incredible experiences such as the world’s longest zipline have helped put Ras Al Khaimah on the world map, but we need to continue to showcase the diversity of the destination to our core audiences in this part of the world.”

“Our ongoing roadshow programme is a great vehicle to tell the story of the accessible authentic Arabian hospitality and year-round sunshine we offer visitors in Europe and beyond. It is essential to personally connect with travel professionals in our source markets, not only to further develop our partnerships with generalist and specialised tour operators but to give travel advisors at travel agencies real flavour of everything Ras Al Khaimah has to offer our European visitors.” - TradeArabia News Service